A MEDIEVAL BESTIARY (Central or northern England, 1210-1220)
A bestiary is a book of real and imaginary beasts, though its subjects can include plants and even rocks. It combined descriptions of the physical nature and habits of animals and includedthe moral and spiritual significance of these characteristics.
Produced in the first decade of the 13th century, this manuscript contains one of the first bestiaries to feature vivid paintings. They are set on gold grounds and in colorful frames instead of the line-drawn renderings used in earlier works of this type. These lavish illuminations would have made this a costly book to produce so it was likely made for an aristocrat, or royal, owner who could read Latin or had a chaplain who could do so.
